Our Approach

Custom Web Design, Development, and Maintenance

Gray's Web Design builds easy-to-use, artfully designed websites. We listen carefully as you tell us what your site needs to do, who your visitors will be, how you want the site to "feel," and what information your site will include.

Building a website can be a daunting task. As web designers, we have the experience to ask the right questions, strike the right tone, and use the technology to best suit your needs. We promise to make it as painless as possible... These are the steps involved in building your site.

Planning

We will interview you to make sure we have all the necessary information to formulate a plan. Some of the questions we might ask include:

What's the purpose of your website?

Who is your target market (your audience)? What will they be looking for? How will they use your site?

What information do you want to include now and in the future?

What are your short term and long term goals for your website?

Will you be selling online?

Who will handle future updates? Will we maintain your site or do you want to maintain your own site? If the latter, we'll discuss the options available to you, and work with you to determine the best approach.

What is your budget, now and in the future?

We will estimate the cost to design and build your initial website. Be sure to budget for additional costs such as domain name registration, web hosting costs, any stock photography costs and any features you'd like to add to your website in the future.

Keeping a website current and accurate is essential! It lets your constituency know you are paying attention and providing them with the most current information possible. Websites that never change lose visitors.

Designing Your Website

Design covers your site's "look and feel" and what information and elements need to be accommodated. We may ask you to point out sites you like (and dislike) and why. We may also show you some sites that have features we think might work well for your site. And, of course we'll ask some more questions:

Is there an organizational "look" you want to maintain? Perhaps you already have branding guidelines or existing marketing materials you want to match. We'll want to see these.

Do you have a logo, graphics, or photographs? What format are they in?

Do you want us to design a new logo? If so, we'll bid that separately.

What information and elements have to be present? Social media links, email sign-up, client login, etc.

How should your site be organized? What are the main areas of interest and what is secondary?

Do you need any custom graphics, and would you like us to find appropriate stock photography?

What you can expect

We will create a large JPG prototype for the home page and another for a typical secondary page and other pages if your site is complicated. These JPGs will show the look and feel of the website, including type style, colors, navigational devices, illustrative/photographic styles, buttons, and related design elements. Even though these are static graphics, we place them into .html pages with backgrounds so these prototypes emulate a real page. These prototypes will be delivered via the Web, linked from an annotation page.

You will review and approve the designs. Time to discuss the designs by phone and to make minor modifications has been included in Rareheron's estimate.

Building Your Website

We use current versions of professional Web development tools (Dreamweaver CC, Adobe Typekit, MySQL, php) and Adobe's graphic design software (Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, and Fireworks CC ) to build your new site. You'll see concepts and pages along the way to be sure we are meeting your expectations.

We will set up an area on Rareheron's server to develop your site, so you will be able to review it thoroughly before going "live."

If your site has a database that populates pages on the fly, we will want to thoroughly test it, and train you on how to easily add to the database from an online admin site.

Likewise, if you choose to update your site yourself by any of the methods we employ, we will train you on the use of the tools, so you are comfortable with them before your site goes live. Learn more about our maintenance options.

Going Live

After a thorough review to be sure your site is ready, you will give final written approval and acceptance of the website. Then Rareheron will move your site from its temporary location onto its domain.

Then we break out the champaign!

Maintaining Your Site

Ongoing maintenance of a website is invoiced at our hourly rate. If your site uses a Content Management System, your site content will be updatable by you. However, if you later want to add new features to the website, or need design changes, we are available to you. When a client hires Rareheron Web Design as their webmaster, we make the commitment that we are there for you for the long haul. As needs arise, or internet strategies change, we are on board as your online marketing team.

We've been working with Gray's Web Design for several years now, and have seen our business grow in leaps and bounds in that time. She has taken our online marketing to a whole new level, and regularly keeps us abreast of current trends so we are sure to keep our competitive edge. Lisa Gray is easy to talk to, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and always willing to go the extra mile.
— Little Creek Cove in Newport, Oregon

Getting Started

Give us a call. We'd like to talk with you,
understand your needs, get to know you.
There’s no obligation.541-961-8907

"We came to Lisa Gray with a desire to modernize our online presence, and add the ability to pay membership dues online, as well as order tickets for our fundraising events. Lisa went above and beyond in all areas and we are delighted with the outcome!“– Friends of Yaquina Lighthouses